The notions of environmental protection, energy saving, and fighting against global warming are all the rage nowadays; hence, converting sunlight light energy into a usable form of energy with a solar cell is an emerging way of generating power. Among a wide variety of solar cells, a concentrator photovoltaic has the highest energy conversion rate and thus is regarded as an important option for large-scale solar power generation.
A concentrator photovoltaic works by focusing the sunlight on a solar cell by means of a converging lens to convert solar energy into electrical energy. However, focusing the sunlight with a converging lens always increases the temperature of the solar cell and the ambient temperature and, as a result, deteriorates the efficiency of photoelectric conversion. Hence, it is imperative to explore the effect of various concentrator photovoltaics on environmental condition, such as temperature or illumination, and evaluate the resultant variation in the efficiency of photoelectric conversion.
There is not any efficient conventional way of testing the efficiency of the energy conversion of a concentrator photovoltaic in a specific environmental condition. The conventional testing method requires adhering a temperature sensor to a heat-dissipating board beneath a concentrator photovoltaic. However, the temperature thus measured is the temperature of the heat-dissipating board rather than the temperature of a solar cell proper or the ambient temperature of the solar cell.
Furthermore, the conventional testing method applies to a real environment only. However, a real environment is always intricate and dependent on variables, including sunlight illumination, solar tracking angle, temperature, wind direction, etc., which have an effect on the result of the test of the efficiency of energy conversion. Environmental variables can vary to an extent great enough to let the environmental variables get out of control and make it difficult to test the solar cell. In addition, the conventional testing method always yields a test result typical of the dimensions of a large-scale system and thus is not applicable to the evaluation of the efficiency of the energy conversion of a single solar cell.
Accordingly, it is imperative to invent a concentrator photovoltaic measuring device for testing the efficiency of the energy conversion of a concentrator photovoltaic efficiently in a real environment and in an environment with a specific variable and testing a single solar cell therein.